Shadow Hearts 3: Impressions From the New World

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Hands-on details and media from the final Japanese version.

By Anoop Gantayat

And just like that, the RPG flood has begun! As the PS2's relevancy begins to wind down, Sony and its third parties are making sure that the system goes out in style. And in Japan, that means lots of RPGs. The systems' last few months leading up to the PS3's Spring launch includes games like Grandia III, Tales of Legendia and Final Fantasy XII -- has there ever been an RPG rush like this before?

Shadow Hearts 3: From the New World marks the start of the flood. It's also somewhat unique amongst most of the titles in that it's part of a series that started on the PS2 and managed to see three installments over the course of the system's life.

Developer Nautilus didn't merely recycle ideas and resources for a quick sequel, though. That much is clear within the first hour or so of From the New World. The game features a new setting, cast and visual style, along with lengthy CG cinema sequences and improvements to the series' trademark battle system.

From the New World is set in America in the year 1929. You play as Johnny Garland, a sixteen-year-old who lost his father, younger sister and a part of his memory in an accident. Instead of continuing his father's business, Johnny has left for New York to form his own detective business. The game begins as Johnny takes his first case, a request from a mysterious man named Gilbert to find a missing criminal.

Once you've explored the streets of New York City, traveling to Times Square and other famous locations, you eventually end up in your first dungeon, a theater infested with zombie-like crooks who give you your first taste of the From the New World battle system. Set up like previous Shadow Hearts games, in addition to selecting commands from a menu, the game includes an action component that requires that you press buttons according to on-screen prompts in order to make your attacks appear. This is called the Judgment Ring system. To this, Nautilus has added a new Stock Gauge System which lets you make use of special combo attacks.

There's much more to From the New World than just this, of course, but we'll have to explore more before giving you detailed impressions. We like what we see so far with the game. Visual design is more colorful and lively than in the previous two titles -- perfect for the change to post World War II America. On top of that, the game seems to have a massive amount of CG-based story sequences, running many minutes at a time. The game's storyline already has us hooked, with its many mysterious characters.

We've uploaded a few quick movies and screens from the latest Shadow Hearts. We'll be back with further impressions once we've played through more of the game.